This group of photos shows B.B. King in different locales. The first three pictures are from his 1975 performance at the Memphis Blues Festival with Bobby Bluebland, a noted Blues singer. Bluebland is a "crooner," having a mellower singing style than King. He also has the ability to "pop" his voice in what is known as "hocket," an African musical tradition that injects silence between notes. King and Bluebland were old friends and often did team concerts together. They worked together very smoothly: as Bluebland was finishing up a lyric, B.B. would just "slide in and take over."
The second group of pictures is from King's May 1976 performance at Lucifer's Club in Boston. All of B.B.'s bookings and record deals were handled by the Sidney A. Sidonberg Agency, which also managed Gladys Knight and the Pips for a time. Sid Sidonberg and King were good friends and had a lot in common, having grown up in the same part of Mississippi. Sidonberg took care of all of King's business arrangements from the beginning of his career until the late 1970s, when Sidonberg retired.

 

All photos are available in high-quality .tiff format in the Site Map.

 


University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. All materials © William Ferris. All rights reserved.